With the increasing prevalence of video cassette recorders (hereinafter referred to as “VCR”) for household use, price-cutting has been advanced in recent years for VCR's of the VHS format. There are also increased chances of recording television programs, as the programs are finding their way into diversification and multiplication. In response to the demand of users for reduction of running cost of recording tapes and increase in length of the recording time, there has been introduced into the market in the year 1999, new products provided with a function of quintuplex recording/replay mode, in addition to the conventionally available standard recording/replay mode and the triplex recording/replay mode.
A VCR of the VHS format of the prior art will be described hereinafter. FIG. 7 is a schematic illustration of a tape pattern depicting recorded tracks and positions of horizontal synchronizing signal recorded on the tracks on a magnetic tape, when recording is made in the quintuplex mode with the VCR for television signal of the NTSC format. As is well known, the VCR of VHS format adopts the azimuth recording method using magnetic heads of different azimuth angles with respect to each other for odd-numbered fields and even-numbered fields. This makes it possible to use a tape pattern not provided with a guard band between the tracks. A number of scanning lines for the NTSC format television signal is 262.5 within one field, and 525 lines in one frame. For the sake of description, they are simplified and shown here as 8.5 lines per one field and 17 lines per one frame. In the figure, a track corresponding to an odd-numbered field of a first frame is represented as 1ODD, a track corresponding to an even-numbered field of the first frame as 1EVEN, a track corresponding to another odd-numbered field of a second frame as 2ODD, and so on in this sequential order from the left to the right. Since this is the well known helical scanning recording method, there occurs a track displacement among adjoining tracks as shown with a reference symbol “αH” in the figure. Individual specifications such as mechanical parameters, a tape feeding speed, and the like are determined so that the track displacement in the standard recording mode (hereinafter referred to as “standard mode”) of the VHS format becomes 1.5H. The αH becomes 0.5H in the triplex recording mode (hereinafter referred to as “triplex mode”), and 0.3H in the quintuplex recording mode (hereinafter referred to as “quintuplex mode”). Here, 1H represents a period of the horizontal synchronizing signal, and it is shown by a length corresponding to the period on the tape pattern. Recorded positions of the horizontal synchronizing signal are aligned in a widthwise direction of the track between mutually adjoining fields (so-called “H-alignment”), when the αH is a multiple of 0.5H.
In the quintuplex mode, in which the αH equals 0.3H, there occurs a displacement of 0.2H in H-alignment between the adjoining recorded tracks. Since the H position does not align with the next recorded track in the quintuplex mode, as described, a skew distortion occurs on a television screen during a special replay, in which video reproduction is performed with fast-forwarding or fast-rewinding. The skew distortion occurs because an AFC circuit for horizontal scan in the television set is not able to respond to a change in period of the horizontal synchronizing signal, if continuity of the periodic horizontal synchronizing signals is lost. During the special replay, a magnetic head scans across a plurality of the tracks to reproduce signals. Therefore, the reproduced horizontal synchronizing signals lose their continuity in periodicity, if there is a displacement in the H-alignment.
Heretofore, the VCR's capable of performing special replay of signal recorded in the quintuplex mode use a TBC (“Time Base Corrector”). They realize images free from skew distortion in the special replay (fast-forwarding replay, rewinding replay, and still image) by making time base correction with the TBC.
However, the conventional structure has a problem imposing a large burden of cost, since the TBC requires a frame memory, and so on.